TOF’s Roundtable: Thriving through Play
Since 2004, The Opentree Foundation has worked towards empowering children to grow into well-rounded adulthoods through Play. Over the last two decades, our journey has made the following abundantly clear:
- The lack of play is a critical, complex problem
- There is a strong need to initiate meaningful dialogue and action to address this problem.
As an effort towards this, on November 7, 2024, The Opentree Foundation and Social Lens hosted a 60-minute roundtable, ‘Thriving through Play’, which was attended by over 200 participants.
The panelists were Ratan Batliboi, principal architect, RJB-CPL, Seema Sharma, philanthropist and founder, Child Action UK, Swati Apte, a leadership coach and founder, The Arts Quotient, Priya Agrawal, founder, Antarang Foundation, and Deepika Mogilishetty, chief of partnerships at Ekstep. Drawing from rich experiences in their own fields, they shared deep, meaningful insights on the shifts needed to integrate play into ecosystems for children and adults. Along with the moderator, Vijaya Balaji, founder, Social Lens, this group of experts discussed the critical need of Play, its transformative impact, and the need for a strong movement to put play at the heart of communities, schools and ecosystems.
The discussion began with the context of play – what is our current ecosystem of play? What are the barriers to play, in terms of mindsets and perspectives, availability of play spaces, limited capital for play-centric research and interventions?
The current context of Play:
“Let’s advocate for shared spaces where play is accessible to all, from corporate lobbies to public venues. Open these areas to children and communities —where adults can witness and learn from the creativity that unfolds.
– Swati Apte Leadership Coach & Co-Founder, The Arts Quotient
Some of the most powerful insights that emerged from the roundtable focused on the open-endedness of Play, how it should be meaningfully integrated into communities, schools, public spaces in order to foster well-being, develop key life skills in childhood and adulthood, and impact society at large. The conversation also highlighted the need to use play without reducing it to the prescriptive, highly structured ‘activity’ it has come to be over time, which points to the need for building capacities and mindsets of teachers and caregivers for using play.
“Play is naturally inclusive – it goes beyond barriers of age, gender, and context. Playfulness is the joy of being, and a way of life.
– Ratan J. Batliboi Principal Architect, RJB CPL
Key ideas:
We were able to connect these key ideas and insights with impact data from our own programmes, and other studies that highlight the long-term impact of play, as well as the consequences for deprivation.
Through this roundtable, we were able to put forth a strong call for changing the way we understand play, use it, measure its impact, and most importantly, give it the rightful space it deserves in children’s lives and environments.